CHAPTER XXX
BETH'S ONE EXPEDIENT
Bostwick had told Beth partial truths. His journey had been hard. Hiscar had been twice disabled on the desert; Lawrence had been difficultto find; delays had confronted him at every turn, and not untilmidnight of the day before this had he come with his quarry toGoldite--barely in time to save the situation, with the reservationopening less than forty-eight hours away.
He had not seen Glen, nor approached the town of Starlight closer thanfifteen miles. He had not yet expended Beth's money, which only thatmorning had been practically placed at McCoppet's disposal. But havingfinally landed the Government surveyor in camp, he had achieved thefirst desirable end in the game they were playing, and matters weremoving at last with a speed to suit the most exacting.
During the interim between Searle's departure and return affairs hadbeen a trifle complicated in another direction--affairs that laybetween the gambler and his friend, the lumberman, big Trimmer.
Trimmer had been paid one thousand dollars only of the sum agreed uponwhen he gave the name of Culver to the half-breed Indian, Cayuse. Hehad since spent his money, demanded the balance due, and threatenedMcCoppet with exposure, only to be met with a counter threat of prisonfor life as the half-breed's accomplice in the crime. McCoppet meantto pay a portion of the creature's price, but intended to get it fromBostwick. Indeed, to-day he had the money, but was far too muchengrossed with Lawrence to give the lumberman a thought.
Trimmer, waxing greedy through the ease with which he had blackmailedMcCoppet, had developed a cunning of his own. Convinced that thegambler was accustomed to incubating plans in his private office, thelumberman made shift to excavate a hole beneath the floor of thatparticular den of privacy, and, after having spent half a night invain, in this place of concealment, was at last being duly rewarded ashe listened to McCoppet and Lawrence.
With his ear to a knot-hole he gathered in everything essential to aknowledge of the plot. He became aware that Lawrence "fell" for twentythousand dollars; he overheard the details of the "survey" about to bemade; but to save his very life he could not have fathomed the meansthat were about to be employed to "jump" the mining property belongingto Van Buren and his partners.
Equipped with this latest means of squeezing McCoppet, the creatureemerged from his hole in time to meet the gambler at the bar, during amoment of Bostwick's temporary absence.
"Opal," he said significantly, "I need to see you fer a minute. Itwon't be no healthier to refuse me now than it was the first time Icome."
The gambler looked at him coldly. "I haven't got time to talk now,Larry, but some of your money is at your order any time you want it, ingold, or poker chips, or gin."
Trimmer was placated. "All right," he said, and cunningly resolved,upon the spot, to keep his latest secret on the ice.
Lawrence had already disappeared to hasten arrangements for getting outupon his work.
Bostwick had waited half an hour in the utmost impatience. With ahundred things to increase his restlessness of mind and body, he hadfinally gone to the postoffice and there discovered a letter fromGlenmore Kent.
It was short, and now no longer fresh. It had been composed just afterthe young man's accident, and after relating how he had received a notinconsiderable injury, requested Searle to come to Starlight at once,if possible, and not to divulge any needless facts to Beth.
"I'm broke, and this knock puts me down and out," the letter concluded."Come down, like a good old chap, and cheer me up."
Bostwick destroyed the letter promptly, lest it fall by some accidentinto other hands than his own. Not without a slight feeling of guilt,the man shut out all thought, for the present, of deserting Goldite andthe plot. That Beth would learn nothing from himself as to Glen'scondition was a certainty. He was glad of this wisdom in the boy--thisshow of courage whereby he had wished his sister spared.
But the more he thought upon Beth's attitude towards himself, and themystifying confessions old Billy Stitts had made, concerning theerrands he was running for the girl, the more Bostwick fretted andwarmed with exasperation, suspicion, and jealousy. He returned toMcCoppet's. The door to the den was still barred. Impatiently hestarted again for Mrs. Dick's. He was not in the least certain as towhat he meant to do or say, but felt obliged to do something.
Meantime, Beth had written to her brother. Bostwick's evasions andlies had aroused more than merely a vague alarm in her breast. She hadbegun to feel, perhaps partially by intuition, that something wasaltogether wrong. Searle's anxiety to assure her she need not write toGlen--that he was coming to Goldite--had provided the one requiredelement to excite a new trend in her thought. She knew that Glen wouldnot come soon to town. She knew she must get him word. She hadthought of one way only to insure herself and Glen against deceit--askVan to go in person with her letter, and bring her Glen's reply.
Had she felt the affair to be in the slightest degree unimportant shemight have hesitated to think of making this request, but the more shedwelt upon it the more essential it seemed to become. Her brothersvery life might be dependent upon this promptness of action. A verylarge sum of money was certainly involved in some sort of business ofwhich, she felt, both she and Glen were in ignorance. Bostwick hadcertainly not seen Glen at all. His deceptions might meananything!--the gravest of dangers to them all!
It had taken her the briefest time only to resolve upon her course--andthen old Billy came upon the scene, as if in answer to a question shehad asked--how to get her request and the letter to Glen across thehills to Van, at the "Laughing Water" claim?
Three letters she wrote, and tore to scraps, before one was finallycomposed to express all she felt, in the way that she wished itexpressed. Old Billy went off to wait and returned there duly,enormously pleased by his commission. He knew the way to the "LaughingWater" claim and could ride the borrowed pony.
As pleased as a dog with a parcel of meat, entrusted to his keeping bya confident master, he finally started for the hay-yard, with twodainty letters in his keeping. One was to Van, with Beth's request;the other was, of course, to her brother.
Bostwick met the proud old beau at the corner of the street.
"Say, Uncle, what did I tell you," said Billy at once. "This time it'sthe biggest errand yet."
Bostwick had wondered if he might not catch Mr. Stitts in some suchservice as he boasted now, and his wit was worthy of his nature.
"Yes," he said readily, "Miss Kent was saying she thought perhaps shecould get you to carry a note to Mr. Van Buren." It was a hazardouscoup but he dared it with the utmost show of pleasure in his smile.For a second, however, as he watched the old man's face, he feared hehad overshot the mark.
Old Billy was pleased and disappointed together. However, his wish toprove his importance greatly outweighed his chagrin that Beth shouldhave taken even "Uncle" Bostwick into her confidence.
"That ain't all she give me," he announced, as foolishly as a child."I've got her letter to her brother, over to Starlight, too, andnothin' couldn't stop me from takin' it up to the 'Laughing Water'claim. You bet I'll see Van Buren gits it right into his hand from me!"
If Bostwick had contemplated making an attempt to bribe the old beauinto permitting him a glance at the letters, he abandoned the thoughtwith sagacious alacrity. He must think of something safer. A letterto Van Buren and one to Glen was more than he had counted ondiscovering. It made him decidedly uneasy.
"I'm sure you'll deliver everything safely," he said, masking hisannoyance with a smile. "Before you go, perhaps, you'd take somethingto drink."
The suggestion in his mind was crude, but at least it was something.
"Huh!" said old Billy, "Me!--drink and git a jag when she's expectin'me to hike right out of camp? Guess you don't know me, Uncle, notworth a mice! Didn't I say nuthin' couldn't stop me? And I'm goin'right now."
He clapped his bony old hand over his pocket, where the two preciousletters reposed, and winking prodigious
ly at Bostwick, departedforthwith from the scene.
Bostwick could have run him down, beaten him to the ground and snatchedthe letters from him, but he did not dare. Instead, he merelycontinued to grin while Billy remained in sight. Then instead of goingon to Beth's, he circled a building and returned down street towardsMcCoppet's.